Major factors that hinder the development of Students' oral communicative competence with Particular reference to grade eleven students of Arjo high school and preparatory programme

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Date

2011-05

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Addis Ababa Universiy

Abstract

This study explored the major factors that hinder the development of students' oral communicative competence with particular reference to grade 11 students of Arjo High School and Preparatory program. For this reason, the study incorporated 36 students out of 228. That is, the sllldy covered 15.8% of the targeted population. It also included four English language teachers. As the students of grade 11 were grouped into four sections, simple random sampling technique was employed to determine the representative sample from each group. To gather data from the subjects, the study employed questionnaire, structured interview and observation. To gather data from the teachers,a questionnaire of23 items and a structured interview 0/'1 items were employed. To gather information from the students, a close-ended questionnaire of 22 items was designed and distributed to the students. The result shows there are a number of factors that hinder the development of students' oral communicative competence. Twelve major factors that hinder students' oral communicative competence are identified. Since the aim is exploring the major factors that hinder the development of students' oral fluency, the researcher selected those factors that are rated more than 50% from highest to lowest as major inhibiting factors. As the result reveals, most factors are related to students, teachers, instructional material and class size. So, large class size, fixed seats that are difficult to move, lack of access to teaching aids, emphasis on gram/i1ar and vocabulary rather than speaking, dislike towards practicing speaking shortage of English textbooks that teach speaking, poor provision by the teacher of speaking activities, poor background speaking experience, teacher dominance in the classroom, lack of confidence in speaking, use of mother-tongue, and shortage of words to express ideas and feelings are the major factors.

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Arjo high school and preparatory programme

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